Week 4: Stayin’ Round Shanghai

This week was my birthday week, so I decided to stay in Shanghai to celebrate with coworkers and newfound friends from my Yellow Mountain adventure the previous weekend. Unfortunately I seem to have caught a bug, so the stories are not quite as crazy as one may have hoped, but I can honestly say the foreigner’s wing of the Chinese hospital I went to was quite pleasant and I’m on the mend.

For my actual birthday day two of my coworkers took me out for a noodle lunch: in Chinese culture it is good luck to eat noodles on your birthday, as long noodles symbolically represent long life. Personally, I think they chose it because people who live to be old can only eat soft foods, but that’s neither here nor there. They also brought me a cake and sang Happy Birthday in my native tongue, so I could follow along. One interesting aspect of living here that you would not find in the States is that they marched on into a restaurant with a full cake, set of plates, forks, etc. and no-one batted an eyelash! It is much too taboo to do that in any restaurant I know back home. Following this meal, we proceeded to get foot massages and relax the afternoon away. In the evening I got “Mexican” food with a friend from my hike. I say Mexican in quotes because it was the most Asian-Mexican food I’ve ever eaten: not a fusion I’ve heard of before or would ever really want to try again, though it tasted pretty good. Among the novelties were carrot and cucumber tacos, Peking duck quesadillas, and churros that tasted like they had been cooked in the dumpling oil. Although the meal did not meet all expectations, the birthday surprise dessert of lava chocolate cake far exceeded them.


Sunday proved to be weather too glorious to stay inside and rest up, so I decided to take a walking adventure and see some of the local sights. My first stop was the famous Fuxing park, about 35 minutes walking from my apartment. You could literally hear the park before you could see it: every 50 feet or so another group of musicians (mostly amateur it would seem) would be seated playing a tune or someone would be singing or there would be a group dancing, or just plain children screaming. Being in this park made me finally understand why people say China feels so crowded: there were people in every space possible, making all the noise in the world, but they were extraordinarily good at ignoring each other. Even the individuals doing Tai Chi in the shade of the tree seemed to be able to block out the sound no problem. Growing up with 3 siblings could be loud sometimes, but nothing compared to the raucous of a popular Chinese park on a beautiful Sunday morning.

Once I had seen (heard) enough I continued on to the People’s Park, near the People’s Square in the middle of the city. I chose to go here both for the convenient location as well as for a local social activity I had been told about. On the weekends, parents worried about their daughters and sons getting married will bring an umbrella to this park along with a description (and occasionally a picture) of their child. They line these up along the walkways and allow people to just peruse through the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes. This is no small thing either: a good number of the information sheets have been laminated for re-use and some umbrellas are exceptionally attractive. Mind you, none of the children are actually there-most are embarrassed by this practice. I asked my coworker if this method of finding a mate actually worked for anyone and she said she had never heard a success story from it. That’s not to say it couldn’t happen, but I’m a bit skeptical myself.

My last stop was to the Bund to take a look at the iconic buildings on the other side. I’ve included a few pictures as well as some from my apartment, which has some pretty spectacular views. Nothing too exciting to report though, and this post is getting awfully long, so if you have any questions leave me a comment!